Visit to Ostfildern - March 2004

Scottish, Finnish and German students and teachers outside the Ostfildern Town Hall

Another successful Comenius Partnership visit took place from 10-14 March when 3 Finnish teachers and 5 of their students, along with 2 Scottish teachers and 5 of their students visited the Otto Hahn Gymnasium, in Ostfildern, Germany.

Teachers and students were hosted by their German counterparts and a varied and interesting programme of events was organised by Ingrid Stritzelberger, the Comenius Co-ordinator at OHG.

Some time was spent in school brushing up the visitors' German language skills and finding out more about the school.  Site-seeing trips were made to Ludwigsburg Castle, Stuttgart, Wilhelm Zoo and a new development in the programme was a visit to a local company, Balluff. 

It is important for both schools and businesses to make contact to their mutual benefit.  The formation of a "Business Partnership" promotes links between local companies and schools in oder for both parties to share information on future educational requirements for the workplace in the 21st century.

The visit to the Balluff company gave the teachers and students an insight into the company's products as well as their requirements for new recruits to the company.  Company staff gave excellent presentations into various aspects of their products, systems and general ethos.  This was followed by a guided tour of the factory and finished with an excellent meal in the staff canteen.  Our grateful thanks are due to the staff at Balluff and it is hoped that this first visit by students will be the first of many future exchanges with the company.

Students and teachers from Scotland would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made our visit to Ostfildern such a happy and memorable one. 

Early morning lessons in German from Frau Stritzelberger	Scottish and Finnish students practice their German	Tour of OHG led by Herr Holzinger	OHG explained	Snow - but still a warm welcome!
Balluff Company history	Factory visit	The Finnish group at Balluff	A talk from the Human Resources Dept at Balluff	Arrival at Ludwigsburg Castle
Scottish group at Ludwigsburg	Inside Ludwigsburg Castle	Capacity audience at the Culture Cafe	The colourful Finnish item	Ghostly images of Finland
The Scots made a lot of noise!	Computers are great when they work!	Centuries of history in 45 minutes from herr Brandle	Mr Davidson meets the Mayor of Ostfildern	The shape of this Pretzel was inspired by folded arms!
Finnish and Scottish teachers in Tubingen	Tubingen Town Hall	Comenius Group at Tubingen Castle	Comenius friends - Scotland, Germany and Finland	Don't visit chiming clock-towers at 12 noon!